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As you know Chessy are investing 5 million in refurbishing parts of the park including Dragon Falls and RT. The whole RT area has been stripped and has left the track and queue path. I tried to take some pics of the site, but theres a solid wooden fence instead of the typical construction fence that used to be there.

I can't believe that last pic is the Runaway Mine train. I would love to know what the plans are i.e. are they going to remake what was already there or redesign things?

I know for a fact the Buddha faces are being changed because there's a competition for people to redesign the flume stuff. I would like to send an entry of what was already there - an old photo or something!

I wonder if you can see from the top of rattlesnake? Perhaps I'll have a look when I go on the 25th?

Did you see anything Dan? When I visited in September my friends and I tried to peek over the barrier to see what was going on, but to no avail. It was pretty difficult to look when we were being banged about every couple of seconds from the jerky turns. Anyway, I'm eagerly anticipating the refurbished Runaway Train for next year. I'm interested to see if it looks any better than before.

Last edited by obliviongirl on Sun Oct 27, 2013 11:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

Just seen a video of the the rebranded scorpion express.Must say it looks underwhelming .Looks like dragon falls after they took down the rock work due to( Heath and safety).Looks like a cheap job rebrand as a excuse for taking down rotton theming and patching up cheap!Let's hope nemisis station doesn't get a (make over) or it will finally get one of those special merlin shipping container stations.Looks just like flying fish now!

The mechanical spider, smoke and fire effects are all rather good - and I was really delighted that they'd given the ride a back-story and a proper queue line audio reel and music. Every-time the flames shot up the entire queue could feel the heat, and when the spider starts squirting you it certainly adds something to the ride experience.

But unfortunately they've really skimmed on the budget with the rest of the theming, the building facades are little more than fences with glued on windows/signs, and the queue line - while trying to represent some sort of abandoned mine - just hasn't had the effort or materials put into it and so comes across as an ugly load fence and wire (but the little scorpion shapes in the floor are a nice touch).

The biggest problem is the ride, as I'm sure you all know - it's the most timid mine train ride you can get with it's rather geriatric speed and boring figure of 8 track, and while the spiders and flames help distract from it - I can't imagine even the kids wanting to queue more than 20 minutes to get back on it, which may be a problem when it's being marketed as the big new attraction (60 minute queues today).

The queue had been utter hell, spending 1/2 of it inside a dark, claustrophobic building, 1/3 queueing round a zig zag of queues that moved an inch a minute., and the rest going over the bridge.

The first thing I noticed was the fact that so many fastracks were on. I understand that it's the first day blah blah blah, but out of 38 available seats, 12 were filled with fastrack users on our train alone, and apparently this was a low number of fastracks in comparison to the rest of the day!

I then noticed that it took five minutes to get everyone in and check the restraints. Sure, there's a lot of safety to do, but this ride took longer to load and leave than Vampire today (yes I timed it - I was bored)

Just as it looks like we're about to be off, I see fire in the far distance. Instead of activating it when we went passed (which we did twice), they did it where we couldn't see it. Brilliant.

So, we're finally off. I tried to enjoy this as I queued over an hour, and it was my last chance before my MAP runs out. But without the rocks, one could close his eyes and find himself on the Flying Fish (Which I have never queued more than 10 minutes for).

Themeparkuk have posted a video showing the ride working from today and must say it looks absolute poo. A poor ride which heavily relied on theming has now had it's only good aspect taken away and poorly replaced. And I haven't even seen it in person yet!

People that dislike it, clearly fail to see the charm that Mexicana was originally meant to give out. All of this town theming and poles in the queue reflect the wacky, yet realistic setting that Calamity Canyon was designed to create.

The mine machinery in the ride area and the facades at the back all add to the rides setting greatly, the attention to detail is pretty good and shows that Chessington are back on track and are back at doing what they do best. Theming!

It's also the only children's roller coaster in the county to feature an elaborate backstory and explained setting. The queue line looks good enough and the scorpion and fire effect will help keep the atmosphere alive and assist in bringing guests into the experience.

I don't really understand other people's issues with it, it's far exceeded my expectations and beats the Fish by a country mile. I look forward to riding it next weekend.

1) The water dribbles out the scorpion at the moment, this is because it comes from a shared tank (with other attractions) and has run out/low. As a result the whole thing needs a new tank and is getting one asap.

2) The advert was filmed on Mammut at Gardaland. Merlin have, obviously, over marketed a ride again.

After my first trip to Chessington this weekend ( I will be harping on about this for week, apologies in advance) I can say that without having any preconceptions from knowing what the ride was like previously, I was pleasantly surprised by Scorpion Express.

The theme IMO is brilliant, the changing notices throughout the queueline at least provide some entertainment, though I must agree that the indoor sections are extremely claustrophobic and I can imagine they will be unbearable in very hot weather.

The dispatching is absolutely DIRE. Friday, I was struck by how horrible dispatch was on all of the rides, however on Saturday there was a significant improvement on every ride apart from S.E. They were failing to batch onto the platform in between rides and when loading, the excessive amounts of checks was just daft, I can only assume that it's training new staff to do the checks properly so I am remaining optimistic that it will improve. Apart from that though, I loved it and the Scorpion seemed to be firing water at full force!